Monthly Archives: April 2010

April 12, 2010

I’m an Idiot

So in my last post, I wrote about how I had to decide whether to jump the gun on getting a new car, or sink money into repairs on my old car.

Turns out, neither. If you recall, the problem was with the cooling system. I called my friend Jim (who knows way more about cars than I do) and described the problem, and he said it might be the thermostat, which is not very expensive and isn’t too difficult to replace. So, I started looking into options to get it replaced or do it myself.

However, yesterday morning it occurred to me that I never checked the coolant! Seriously, the first thing anyone, even the least auto repair-savvy person on the planet, would think of to check if their car was in danger of over-heating, I completely over-looked. Of course, that’s all it turned out to be. (Although, why the low-coolant light never came on to begin with is another question altogether.)

I guess the problem is, with as many miles as my car has, my mind automatically jumped to the worst possible scenario, especially considering that I’m already in the mind-set that I need to replace the car before anything major goes wrong, and I never even thought of the obvious.

Either that, or I’m just an idiot.

1 comment | posted in Funny, Personal

April 9, 2010

Decisions

By chitowngeorge

Lately I’ve been thinking about buying a new car. I’ve had my car since 2002 and it has over 130,000 miles on it. I think it’s time to find a replacement. It still runs well (it’s been well maintained), but I think it’s getting old enough that I’ll soon be sinking money into it for repairs as things break down.

So, I’ve been looking. In the past, I’ve been slightly impulsive when it came to buying new cars. This time, I’ve been taking my time and checking different cars out online. Also, I’ve decided to get a used car, in order to avoid the financial mistake of taking the initial hit in value that comes with a new car.

The other thing, besides taking the time to make the right decision on the car itself, is waiting to purchase while I put money aside from my normal budget to make sure I have a decent down payment (and therefore lower monthly payments). Again, this isn’t something I would have done when I was younger when buying a car.

So, no impulsive decision making and spending. This time, I have a plan.

Unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way of the plan.

Yesterday, when leaving work I turned on the heat in my car. It made a noise. It was a noise it never made before. The heat still worked, and the noise subsided after a bit, so I didn’t think too much of it. Until this morning.

This morning, on the way to work, I again turned the heat on. No noise, but no heat either. The fan was blowing, but it was cold air. Thinking, at first, that maybe the engine wasn’t warm enough yet, even though I’d been driving for a while, I looked at the temperature gauge. Not only was the engine warm enough that I should have heat, but it was hotter than usual. Not overheating, but much higher than normal, especially for a chilly morning.

So, life gets in the way of the plan. Now I have a decision to make. Do I start sinking money into repairs for a car that I’m planning on getting rid of in a few months (which would end up pushing back my time frame for replacing it)? Or, do I go ahead and replace it now, before I’ve got the whole amount I had planned for the down payment set aside?

It’s frustrating because it’s really only a couple of months earlier than I had planned on replacing it, but I don’t have the money set aside specifically for that purchase, and it would take a little time to move money around from elsewhere to make up the difference (for the first time in my life I actually have money in savings and investments, which is good, but it makes that money a little less accessible).

Decisions.

Comments Off | posted in Personal